Category Archives: Holidays

Holidays, Homeschooling, Homeschoooling

6 Pi Day Fun & Learning Resources

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PiDayResources

I love it when the silly holiday is a nerd holiday. And what gets nerdier than celebrating Pi Day? Of course we are going to be doing some Pi themed school and fun.

So you all can have a fun Pi day too here are great resources!

1. The official Pi Day site has all kinds of great information all about Pi!

2.The Exploratorium has a bunch of activities all working with Pi in simple and really fun ways! (Throwing toothpicks anyone?)

3. Math Goodies has a unit on Circles and Area (along with some other great things like crosswords)

4. A generic page out of the UK has a phenomenal history to Pi that is simple and easy to follow!

5. Did you know that there are Pi Day songs? Math Forum has some and while they are super corny they seem fun!

And last but not least…..


The Pi Episode of Math Bites with Danica McKellar! There is even a fabulous Sugar Pi Fairy song!

gift worthy, giveaway, Holidays, Things & Travel

Teleflora Valentine’s Giveaway and Coupon

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Teleflora's Radiant Reflections Bouquet
Teleflora’s Radiant Reflections Bouquet

It is almost Valentine’s Day!!! And for many people that means flowers. And Teleflora is a floral tradition that always has great flower bouquets and a people have used them for years to send flowers.

But sending flowers doesn’t always have to be expensive! Teleflora has a 20% off coupon that you can use now and all the way up to 6/15/2014! Use coupon code FLOWERSMC to get your 20% off on your Valentine’s Day flowers but also for your Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Graduation too!

But better than a coupon is a giveaway! Teleflora is going to give a $75 coupon code to 1 NerdFamily reader! And you will get it in time to have flowers delivered for Valentine’s Day!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

By the way: This is my favorite bouquet, in case you want to send it to me;).

(Disclosure: This is a compensated giveaway.)

As Seen on TV, Holidays, Smart Living Strategies

Advent Jar Calendars

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Advent Jar CalendarsWe are all super familiar with Advent chains, calendars, and the like that call count down to Christmas starting December 1st. But I have some new ideas and instead of taking links off chains or eating chocolate out of paper calendars. Those paper chain count down toward Christmas were so exciting when we were in preschool or kindergarten. But lets be honest, counting from 1 to 25 is just not as thrilling as it once was;). These ideas use a jar (or bowl or basket) instead. Some start full and some start empty!

Activity a Day Jar: You put 25 pieces of paper folded in the jar and each one has a holiday activity on it. If you have activities on your calendar you write the number of the day on the outside of it. So if you are going to the Nutcracker or having an open house, put the date on that piece of paper. Anything not numbered is a random grab for days that don’t have plans! You can use activities like making a gingerbread house, cutting snowflakes, watching a holiday movie and the like.

Thankful Jar: On Thanksgiving as a family you fill 25 slips of paper with something you are thankful for. Then everyday leading up to Christmas take out one slip and discuss why you are thankful! Then you will be full of gratitude long before presents get opened!

Random Acts of Kindness Jar: Every day we should do a random act of kindness as just a general rule. This helps you put it into practice. When you do a random act of kindness over the month just write it down and put it in the jar. You can even tell your family that there will be no Christmas until there is at least 25 acts if you want to be hardcore;). Write the act and the date on the paper.

So there are just a few ideas to spice of the count down to Christmas! What are the traditions that you have in your family? Do you do the candy calendars? We do those too but this year we are going to do more!

Holidays, Shopping, Smart Living Strategies

Affordable Non-Candy Halloween Handouts

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There are some quality, cheap candy options like Tootsie Pops and Tootsie Rolls from the Dollar Store. But really, who needs more candy on Halloween? We get way too much!!! So why not hand out some candy alternatives? You can probably even get it cheaper than quality candy (and I don’t believe in cheap candy;).

1) Pencils and party favors from the Dollar Store. You get 6-12 items per dollar
2) Other dollar bin finds! I found a bag of 35 army men for $1 at Target
3) Odds and ends you have from goody bags, purchased for favors, etc. They are just sitting there, why not free up some space? I have left over Chinese drums, necklaces, and the like.
4) Bargain erasers and highlighters that were picked up for 5 cents each (or less) at back to school sales
5) Bargain favors from party stores! I paid $3.25 for 125 spider rings and $14.50 for 100 favor pack. Those are sale prices. You can get non-holiday themed 100 packs also but those weren’t on sale. They are $20.

I do recommend that if you are buying new stuff that you buy stuff you and your kids like. You can always use them as Easter basket stuffing and Christmas stocking stuffers. Or in birthday party goodie bags or as rewards!

What do you usually hand out for Halloween?

 

Holidays, tech

4th of July Phone Pics

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I wanted to share some of my 4th of July pictures that I took with my Samsung Galaxy S4 that I received from Verizon!! These are totally untouched so please excuse the lack of cropping!
2013-07-04 21.25.29

Will I ever fall out of love with the site of fireworks in the dark? Even with the smoke they are still gorgeous!
2013-07-04 21.29.42

Seriously, this is just the S4 camera with the flash off. That is it!!! These are the best pictures of our yearly fireworks that I have gotten yet! I usually take my point and shoot out and might get 1 that is even worth editing.

2013-07-04 21.30.10

The shutter speed was pretty fabulous! The one bad thing… I was getting such great pictures I kept getting closer and closer like my camera was going to protect me;). Seriously, we had a ball on the 4th and I am stoked that I got some fab pictures!!!

Thanks again to Verizon for the Samsung Galaxy S4!!! I am loving it! But while they gave me the phone all thoughts and words are mine and mine alone!!!

As Seen on TV, Crafting, Holidays, Homeschoooling

Kid Friendly 4th of July Wreath

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Kid Friendly 4th of July Wreath

This should come as no surprise but, I am not super crafty. I see all these very cute projects on Pinterest but I have not the time nor the talent to attack them. But my kids love to craft and want to spend time with me so I look for cute projects that they can so with me. I saw something similar to this in an All You magazine (last year, maybe) and I tweaked it to a project that I did with my 2 oldest kids!!!

All you need:

Wreath form (the nicer it is the less you have to cover it)
5-7 pieces of 12×12 scrapbook paper (depending on how many patterns you want)
Chip board stars
Ribbon
Glue sticks or tape runner
Hot Glue gun
Paper cutter
Ruler (optional)

4thwreathstepsProcess:
Cut the 12×12 sheets in half. Cut 1 half into 4×6 pieces and the other into 3×6 pieces. Then take 3 pieces of matching paper (both in size and pattern) and do a 1/2 inch accordion fold in each one. I give the kids a ruler and a Pampered Chef scraper to use;). You can also use a bone folder to sharpen the folds.

Take 1 piece that has been folded and fold it in half lengthwise so it looks like a fan. Glue it that way with either the glue stick or tape runner. Take 3 matching fans and glue them together to make a rosette. Do this for as many rosettes as you would like.

Wrap your wreath form in ribbon. You can cover it or do like I did so that you can see the form underneath. I didn’t have a lot of the blue ribbon so I used a second for the red and white. Do it how ever you want. I secured the ribbon with straight pins but you could also glue it onto the form.

Take your small rosettes and hot glue your stars onto the centers. You could probably do it last but I find this easier.

Start arranging your rosettes on the form. You can cover it but my kids didn’t want to make that many rosettes;). I made a point to try to randomize the colors and patterns. Then hot glue it all down. Make sure to leave your wreath flat until the glue cools!

Then my daughter wanted a bow on the wreath. So I just took the extra ribbon and tied a bow to her finger and hot glued it on.

Seriously, that is it. The only thing I specifically bought for this project was the wreath form which we can use again. Everything else is crafting extras that I had in my cabinet from various projects I was going to someday do.

And now we have a super cute wreath that the kids got to help make!!!